


The Nightmare

by starconvoy



Category: The Railway Series - W. Awdry, Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, Thomas the Tank Engine - All Media Types
Genre: Character Death, Nightmares, scrapping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-22 17:40:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21305981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starconvoy/pseuds/starconvoy
Summary: It's all just a dream right? Alan Pegler bought Flying Scotsman in 1963, saving the engine from scrap. Who's to Scotty wasn't a little traumatized by what almost happened to him?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	The Nightmare

Scott jerked awake as he felt himself both pulled and pushed along a dark stretch of track. Blinking tiredly, he tried to get his bearings but for some reason, couldn’t remember where he was.

“Hm, driver, where are we?” he asked, his voice hoarse.

“Heh, your driver isn’t here anymore, steamy.”

“Yeah, your driver hasn’t been around for a while.”

Scott looked towards the engine coupled up in front of him, a feeling of concern growing in his boiler.

“Then who are you two? And where are you taking me?”

“It doesn’t matter who we are, teapot. We’re just here to do our jobs.”

“You’ve really been out of it, haven’t you?” the engine coupled up behind Scott asked.

Scott felt a sense of panic beginning to fill him. _Where am I? Where am I going? Where have I…_been_ this entire time?_

“Please,” Scott said, trying to hold his voice steady as the diesels brought him to a halt at a signal. “Please, just explain what’s going on. I-I don’t understand—”

“You were on the out of use line,” the diesel in front snapped, growing impatient at the nonstop questions.

“We’re taking you to the smelters. This is the end for you, Flying Teapot,” the engine behind Scott added. The two diesels laughed as they continued along once the signal turned green.

“What? No, there…there must be a mistake. I-I’m not…”

“No mistake here,” the first diesel cut in. “You’ve been on the out of use line for a while now. We took your siblings away and now it’s your turn.”

“No, please, I was promised…I was told this wouldn’t…” Scott could feel his eyes fill with tears. _But…Mr. Pegler promised me…he told me he wouldn’t…he wouldn’t let them take me…_

_I thought I was saved…_

Scott tried to swallow his panic back as a large, imposing building came into view. The heavy doors leading inside were open and Scott could see fire and smoke.

“Please no, don’t do this…I’m n-not supposed to b-be here!” Scott cried, tears freely falling down his cheeks now.

The diesels didn’t respond as they brought him inside. Workmen came and uncoupled him from them and they moved away.

“T-this is a m-mistake!” Scott sobbed, watching the workmen begin to look him over, some of them putting marks here and there. They went about their work sullenly but didn’t look up at him and didn’t acknowledge his fear.

“I was bought! I was supposed to be preserved, not…not…” Scott couldn’t bear to say it. The diesels returned, one on either side of him.

“Steam’s going out of fashion,” one said.

“Your time is up, Flying Teapot,” the other added.

Scott looked in horror from one to the other. His entire frame was shaking as they moved off, presumably to get out of the way as several workmen approached holding torches.

“No, please, no! Don’t cut me up! Please!” Scott was practically screaming in terror.

_I was promised! I was going to be saved!_

_I thought I had escaped all of this…_

The workmen came close, several of them lowering masks over their faces to protect them from the light of their torches.

_Why is this happening? Where am I?_

Scott tried to reverse out of the building, away from the two diesels who now sat watching him, away from the workmen and their unfeeling faces, but it was no use. His tender was empty, his firebox was cold. All he could do was watch in horror as the men lit their torches.

“NO! Good Gresley, please have mercy! This is a misunderstanding!” Tears continued to fall down his face and Scott could feel himself losing his breath as the men came closer and closer, the heat radiating from their torches burning against his wheels, his boiler, his frame…

The two diesels watched sullenly as Scott continued to wail in terror.

“First one to go like this, ey Arry?”

“Yeah. Kind of disturbing, actually, isn’t it, Bert?” his brother responded.

Arry didn’t respond as the first torch began to cut into Scott’s frame.

Scott screamed in agony, white hot pain stunning him as more cuts were made.

_I don’t want to go…I don’t want to go…I don’t want to go…_

The pain reached an excruciating level and Scott’s mouth hung open, his scream dying down to a choking sound. Everything went dark and the last thing he saw was the two diesels watching him, a disturbed look on their faces.

\--

Scott jerked awake again and could feel his breaths coming in gasps. He looked around and panicked for a moment before a pleading voice and a hand on his buffer pulled him back to reality.

“Scotty! _Scotty!_ It’s okay! I’m here, old boy! It’s okay!”

Scott looked down at the man standing at his buffers, rubbing them comfortingly.

“S-sir…?” Scott breathed, a few tears falling down his face.

“Scotty, it’s okay. No one’s going to take you away. I’m taking care of you now, remember?”

Scott heaved a sigh of both relief and exhaustion before beginning to cry again. Pegler watched him sadly for a moment before finding a rag and climbing onto Scott’s running board to wipe his tears away.

The nightmares were a common occurrence ever since he bought Scott. It would take a while, he knew, for those to go away considering the close call the engine had had with death.

_But for now_, Pegler thought as he sat close to Scott’s smokebox and began wiping at the tears, _we’ll have to take this one step at a time._


End file.
